Species extinction rate speeding up: 50,000 species a year

Minnesota Public Radio ^ | .... | Dan Olson,

[Sender]

It’s that pesky human infestation again. Man, I hope they kill those suckers off soon.

[BenLurkin]

Not to worry — evolution will change other creatures in order to fill those ecological niches.

[chaos_5]

If you haven't identified it how do you know it went extinct?

[C210N]

Species extinction rate speeding up: 50,000 species a year...

while the new-species rate has sped up also to 50,000 species a year.

Why, as we speak, a new species of mammal is currently evolving on the Gaza Strip. It has shown a incredible ability to procreate, while at the same time seems to be driven to suicidal tendencies (taking along innocents).

[Fairview]

If crabgrass becomes extinct, I’d be cool with that. Also most forms of bugs.

[WorkerbeeCitizen]

Is this the part where we’re all ggunna freakin die?

[Joe Boucher]

I’d better get busy,
Lots of creatures I want to taste before they disappear.
Here spotted owl, Here manatee,Now as for recepies?

[SteveMcKing]

Tilman argues saving the planet's biodiversity will require modifying human preferences for driving bigger vehicles, eating more meat and generally consuming more of everything around us.

I think I know what Tilman consumes.

[Taichi]

Tilman argues saving the planet’s biodiversity will require modifying human preferences for driving bigger vehicles, eating more meat and generally consuming more of everything around us.

---

In other words he’s a whiny anti-capatilist, socialist.

[RightWhale]

Can they name a few of them? Or even name one habitat that has been converted to human use?

[SteveMcKing]

I was right....
 

David Tilman

[ConservativeMind]

Exactly!

[SandRat]

Well,... there they go agin. Blaming humans for just what nature does and God Designed things to be.

[ConservativeMind]

Yup, a veggie-eater if I ever saw one.

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

While visiting the beach last week I saw a huge seal chase a surfer into shallow water. When I talked to the surfer, he told me that he thought that the seal was going to bite him.

I am waiting for the day that the eviro-wackos want to ban humans from the beaches because we are disturbing the wildlife.

[Daralundy]

doomage ping!

Lets see they don’t know how many species there are and they don’t know whats in danger and they probably couldn't name anything that has actually gone extinct last year. But they confidently proclaim 50000 species are going extinct each year. Shilling for money I think.

[hgro]

This is the usual “happy horse hockey” served up by the “Scientific Community” looking for government grants.

[airborne]

I watched a show the other night. Man vs. Wild.

The guy is a survivalist who gets dropped off in various environments and finds his way back to civilization,while demonstrating survival skills. One of my favorite programs. (There’s a Father’s Day marathon on Discovery right now!)

Anyhow, he’s in the Everglades,and he catches a 1 year old alligator. I figure, since he said that there’s over a million gators there in the Everglades, he’s going to eat the little bugger.

But he puts it down,saying it would be a good meal but IT’S PROTECTED!!

How is an alligator a protected species if there are millions??

[Dr. Frank fan]

No one seems to be able to explain why maximizing the number of species that exist at any given time is or ought to be our goal.

There is emotion involved here, because our language speaks of species as "dying off". Poor widdle species!

But all critters and plants will die. The real question is, do all currently-existing species need to continue to have descendents forever? "Dying off", when speaking of a species, just means "stops having descendents at some point". But big deal. Why is it so important for all extant species to always have descendents? No one can answer that. I would answer it on a case-by-case basis, i.e. we like this or that species because of property XYZ (perhaps something as simple as: "because it's cute"), therefore we wish it to continue to have descendents. But that would insert human judgment into the equation, which is a no-no in the complainers' eyes. Why? Because they are fundamentally anti-human.